Spring Fever

Spring fever has officially hit our house. 

Grumpiness, restlessness, a desire to run away – far, far away from Minnesota… and that’s just Mama.  It definitely hits me the hardest.  My husband is an eternal optimist – February always makes me happy because I know it’s not much longer now until spring (he says while I shoot eye darts at him along with mental warnings to just shut it because he knows full well what I consider real spring is at least two more months away); and M always has the hope of coming snow to break up the monotony of our days (while I shoot eye darts at the skies and wonder just how did I end up in this cruel, cruel cold wasteland).

So.  There you see the real me.  The real pregnant me,- because throwing up all of January, just to be hit with gray skies and snow in February does not. seem. fair.  We need some happy yellow daffodils poking up through green grass.  Not more grayness, covered with an occasional layer of whiteness and blah-ness. 

We recently went here, as everyone in the family is desperate for Mommy to act somewhat normal again:

I kept thinking how lovely it would be if they would just leave me here for a week with a pile of good books and a pillow (and please try to get rid of the rest of the people milling about.  Because sometimes they talk.). 

And it seems M has caught the flower bug.  He has grand plans for his very own garden this year.  He spent an entire afternoon looking through a flower book and marking all the flowers he wants to plant:

 

I didn’t have the heart to tell him that here in Minnesota (sigh) you have to choose based on hardiness, not prettiness.  So here’s what the book looked like when he was finished with his page marking:

He wasn’t actually finished… he just got to the “G”s and ran out of bookmarks. :)

My husband saves things like vegetable trays from Sam’s Club, thinking that they’ll come in useful “someday”.  I fake-smile at him and mentally scream things like “Declutter!  Peace!  Sanity!  Small home!”, while he thinks things like, “Useful! Recycle! You never know!”.  As long as he stores his “stuff” out of sight, I am okay with it.  And, clever man that he is (and he is, I admit) he used a little super glue to attach an upside down cover to a tray, then poked some drainage holes through the bottom of it.  M will be using this to start his garden – hopefully sometime this week we’ll get around to actually planting the seeds:

Because in this cold and cruel place you have to start your seeds inside, two months before spring, if you actually want anything to grow. 

Now I’m off to continue my hibernation attempt (if only everyone would leave me alone, I’m sure I could sleep through March).

Your little ray of sunshine,
Nicole  :)

Learning by Heart – Spring Fever

“The mother’s heart is the child’s schoolroom”
– Henry Ward Beecher

 

~M is 4.5 years old~

LITERACY

We continue to play our little word sound games, as detailed in this post, and M is progressing well through the first set of Bob Books.  He is not crazy about the story line in these, heh.  But really, any first reader is going to have plots like Mat had a cat.  The cat sat on the mat.  The End.  :)  I am happy that his desire to read stems from the joy of a story, and his comprehension of a complex plot continually amazes me.  Yet, we have to start somewhere – he can’t begin with Mark Twain or Charles Dickens, haha.  I am slightly concerned that his interest in reading on his own is waning as we go through such simple stories… any ideas?

MATH

Math got a post of its own this week. :) You can read the review of what we’ve been doing (mostly) in math, here.

SCIENCE

We’ve been enjoying the outdoors and learning about plants, flowers, trees, and birds over the past few weeks.  We’ve used a lot of our 3-part cards (click on the images if you are interested in downloading any of these sets)…

Bird identification:We have new little bird friends in our backyard this year – a sweet bluebird family in one of our birdhouses, and some yellow-rumped warblers.  We normally only see the warblers for about a week as they migrate through, but this spring at least one has stuck around, and is welcome to stay as long as he wants. :)  Most of our bird-learning has been done spur-of-the-moment style, and we race to our favorite bird identification book a lot:

We are also reading The Bird Book for Children, by Thornton Burgess.If you can get your hands on this book, it’s well worth reading.  There’s a lot of information packed into this little book about birds: what they look like (beautiful illustrations), what they eat, where they nest, how many eggs, etc.  And it’s all written in story form to appeal to the young child.  M loves all of Thornton Burgess’ books; each one really is exceptional. (A side note – Burgess was a naturalist as well as a great story teller.  Each of his books is packed with information about animals and nature, and M doesn’t even know he’s learning because the story is just so good.  I am tempted to make lap books to go with each story for next year, since M is already talking about reading all of these again.  We’ll see…)

Flower identification:

Parts of a flower:

Parts of a tree:

Parts of a leaf:

And M has been tending little pots of marigolds and forget-me-nots (kits found in the Target dollar spot):

 forget-me-nots, just beginning to sprout

forget-me-nots, beginning to grow!

 marigolds, just beginning to sprout

 marigolds, beginning to grow!

He will have his own little garden outside this year, and already has big plans (bigger than the plot will be, to be honest) for vegetables and flowers.

Two books about plants that we’ve enjoyed reading are:

PRACTICAL LIFE

Making seasonal arrangements is one of M’s very favorite activities.  I set out a dish, some florist’s foam, and a few seasonal items on picks or wires, and he is happy for a good 30 minutes.  Here is his spring arrangement – flowers, foam, and bowl were all from Dollar Tree; the birds were from some Christmas decorations:   

And M has been mowing the lawn:Hahaha – just kidding. ;)  He is steering the lawn mower in the above picture, but the blade is up for safety, and no actual mowing is going on.   And Daddy is keeping him very safe (note the ear muffs to protect his hearing; I think they are so cute!).

ART AND MUSIC

Painting outside is always fun.  M and I had a blast painting on an old roller shade out in the grass:

trying out some splatter painting

And painting a new birdhouse:

All finished:

 

M made this bright and cheerful flower garden in an egg carton:

And we’ve been enjoying some new spring-themed songs.  Our favorites are Robin in the Rain, and this one:

The Rain

With a drip, drip, drip,
and a drop, drop, drop,
See the rain on the pane,
Will it stop, stop, stop?

With a wink, wink, wink,
And a blink, blink, blink,
Will we ever see the rain,
Do you think, think, think?

And M has been watching, and loving, this:

I’m linking this post up to Preschool Corner and Weekly Wrap-Up; be sure to check them out!

Have a beautiful day! :)